This application relates to an orally administered composition derived from plants which is useful for treating bone disorders.
Numerous plants were once believed to have medicinal value. However, the attention of the scientific community has turned away from research in this area. While the attention paid to medical botany has decreased in recent years, the pharmacological effectiveness of certain botanical remedies remains useful, and there remains a long felt need for continued research in this area.
Numerous plants and plant derivatives are presently used for the treatment of disease. For example, mandrake (mandragora officinarum) yields the alkaloid hyoscine, which is a powerful analgesic. Opium, which is a dried exudate from the unripe seedpods of the opium poppy (papaver somniferum) contains many alkaloids, some of which have medicinal value. Morphine and codeine are used for their analgesic properties; papaverine is used to treat intestinal colic and vascular spasm, and noscapine is an antitussive.
The autumn crocus (colchicum autumnale) contains colchicine, which is very effective for the treatment of gout. The purple foxglove (digitalis purpurea) and wooly foxglove (digitalis lanata) contain potent produce positive inotropic effects when administered orally, and are used to treat congestive heart failure.
The composition described herein is used to treat bone disorders. Bone fractures are initially treated by traditional methods such as by resetting, splinting and immobilizing the limb, such as with a cast. Suitable casts may be made from plaster or plastics.
In cases of severe fracture, the bone may be repaired by surgically attaching a plate made of titanium alloy, stainless steel, bioglass, aluminum oxide ceramic, polyethylene, polytetrafluoroethylene, or silicone to the bone across the fracture, with screws and/or bone cement. Metal rods have also been used successfully as a means of splinting and immobilizing damaged bone.
Bone transplants have also been attempted using homologous bone, bone cells, and artificial bone, with varying degrees of success.
Prosthetic devices have also been used to replace degenerated bone.
Additionally, potentially severe bone disease such as rheumatoid and osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and the like, as well as diseases such as non-specific bone related pain has been treated by various means, ranging from the use of non-steroidal antinflammatory drugs to gold injections.
The invention described herein utilizes an oral composition as an adjunct to the conventional bone disease treatments described above. For example, when a broken bone is to be treated, the fracture is set by a physician and placed into a cast or splint. In addition to these measures, and in accordance with the present invention, the composition described herein is administered orally to reduce the pain, hasten the formation of new bone across the fracture and strengthen the pre-existing bone. This leads to increased bone density, decreased bone brittleness and reduced bone pain.
When the composition is used to treat non-fracture related bone disease, e.g., arthritis, conventional therapy is supplemented in accordance with the invention described herein.